Tony deals with a difficult situation involving Meadow's soccer coach and Junior suffers embarrassment from the mouths of gossips.
This is another memorable episode with fabulous black comedy, philosophical themes and great character moments.
Junior has a considerable amount of screen time and for me has some of the best scenes. His plot contains moments of great humour, strong drama and has importance to the overarching narrative of the season. Dominic Chianese gives one of his best performances with a display of comic timing, controlled rage, and tortured emotions. We see another side to the character and in glimpses he portrays how difficult and upsetting Junior finds living by the code of being a mobster.
Similarly Tony is depicted as someone who lives in an a mostly inflexible world that expects him to always project strength. The writers give him a dilemma that shows whether or not there are more sides to his character and if he can make moral decisions outside of the code. James Gandolfini is superb as ever taking the strong material written for the character and making it brilliant. He delivers humour, intimidation, parental angst, and vulnerability all perfectly.
Livia, Artie, Charmaine, and Silvio all have great moments that contribute strongly to the plot and entertainment of the episode. As ever their actors do fantastic work.
Visually it contains strong cinematography and editing. Some of the angles used to portray Tony in different situations are very nicely done. The opening soccer scene isn't particularly well choreographed (in a sporting sense) but the watching parents make up for that by being so funny.
I don't think it's a perfect episode, as there are certain contrivances that send the plot in the direction it needs to go. I have always been conflicted watching Kevin O'Rourke as Coach Howser. He is entertaining when on screen, but at times feels like a bit of a caricature. However, it is overall a great example of a self-contained story that is also important to what comes in later episodes.
For me it's a 9.5/10 but I round upwards.
This is another memorable episode with fabulous black comedy, philosophical themes and great character moments.
Junior has a considerable amount of screen time and for me has some of the best scenes. His plot contains moments of great humour, strong drama and has importance to the overarching narrative of the season. Dominic Chianese gives one of his best performances with a display of comic timing, controlled rage, and tortured emotions. We see another side to the character and in glimpses he portrays how difficult and upsetting Junior finds living by the code of being a mobster.
Similarly Tony is depicted as someone who lives in an a mostly inflexible world that expects him to always project strength. The writers give him a dilemma that shows whether or not there are more sides to his character and if he can make moral decisions outside of the code. James Gandolfini is superb as ever taking the strong material written for the character and making it brilliant. He delivers humour, intimidation, parental angst, and vulnerability all perfectly.
Livia, Artie, Charmaine, and Silvio all have great moments that contribute strongly to the plot and entertainment of the episode. As ever their actors do fantastic work.
Visually it contains strong cinematography and editing. Some of the angles used to portray Tony in different situations are very nicely done. The opening soccer scene isn't particularly well choreographed (in a sporting sense) but the watching parents make up for that by being so funny.
I don't think it's a perfect episode, as there are certain contrivances that send the plot in the direction it needs to go. I have always been conflicted watching Kevin O'Rourke as Coach Howser. He is entertaining when on screen, but at times feels like a bit of a caricature. However, it is overall a great example of a self-contained story that is also important to what comes in later episodes.
For me it's a 9.5/10 but I round upwards.